Motel Pinup 4

This is a slight departure from the rest of the Motel Pinup mini-series. Usually I try to incorporate retro lingerie to help define the genre I’m working in and that’s absent from this shot. While shooting in this kitschy motel room I noticed these snow shoes could look like wings with a person between them. The idea for this shot came in a sort of stream-of-consciousness. I asked the model what she though and she liked the idea. The image has a fairy sort of feel. You could also read bird or insect (dragonfly?) motifs in it.

Some might think that this wanders too close to an attempt at art to be pinup, or that it’s lack of era defining props means it can’t be retro and is therefore inherently less pinup-y. They have a point, but the actual vintage pinup I’ve seen often straddles genres between art and alluring. The lack of anything placing this in a time period is also interesting. It’s a bit unhinged in time. Is it modern? Could it be vintage?

I think this image has elements of art and pinup in it, and while it may not be exemplary of either genre, it is what it is extremely well.